Rebecca

Monday, January 13, 2014

Post-film discussion with Lea Delaria!

35mm print!

New bride Joan Fontaine is thrilled after marrying rich and charming Laurence Olivier, but everything comes tumbling down when she moves in with him and his creepy housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, played with gothic lesbian perfection by Dame Judith Anderson. Will the memory of the first Mrs. DeWinter ruin their bliss? And just how did she die, exactly? Hitchcock’s Hollywood debut netted him his only Best Picture Oscar and the fascination of queer film fans like actress, comedian and singer Lea Delaria (currently tearing it up as a lesbian inmate on Netflix smash Orange Is the New Black). She says “To really appreciate Blue is the Warmest Color, Bound, Go Fish,and others, we need to acknowledge the lesbian undertones of Rebecca.” Manderley awaits!

“Through its first two-thirds it is as perfect a myth of adolescence as any of the Disney films, documenting the childlike, nameless heroine’s initiation into the adult mysteries of sex, death, and identity, and the impossibility of reconciling these forces with family strictures. As a Hitchcock film, it is, with the closely related Suspicion, one of his rare studies from a female point of view, and it is surprisingly tender and compassionate; the same issues, treated from a male viewpoint, would return in Vertigo and Marnie (Laurence Olivier’s Maxim becoming the Sean Connery character of the latter film). With Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson, Nigel Bruce, and Gladys Cooper.” – Dave Kehr